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LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment announced last week that they will shut down Star Wars Galaxies, effective December 15.

"The shutdown of SWG is a very difficult decision, but SOE and LucasArts have mutually agreed that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time to end the game," the companies said in a note on the game's support forum.

The closure affects the MMO and the Trading Card Game. To soften the blow, Sony and LucasArts said the current SWG community will be able to take advantage of a "galaxy-ending in-game event" in December.

"During the last week that SWG is available ... we're going to end with a bang and we want the final chapter of the galaxy to be written in part by the dedicated and passionate SWG community. Details will be announced at a later date," the companies said.

Active SWG subscribers in good standing, meanwhile, will be able to play several SOE massively multiplayer online PC games at the subscriber level at no extra charge. Between October 15 and December 15, those users will have access to Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, EverQuest, EverQuest II, and DC Universe Online via the Star Wars Galaxies Web site.

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A former Lucasfilm software engineer on Wednesday filed a class-action lawsuit against a who's who of Silicon Valley tech giants, alleging a conspiracy to fix employee pay and not poach staff away from each other in violation of anti-trust laws.

Siddharth Hariharan, a former Lucasfilm employee who is the founder and CEO of game developer InEarth, is suing Lucasfilm, Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar.

Hariharan is represented by Joseph Saveri of the national plaintiffs' law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein.

The suit claims that an alleged "no-solicitation" agreement between the named companies resulted in employee compensation being reduced by "10 to 15 percent" as compared to "what would have prevailed in a properly functioning labor market where employers compete for workers."

The Secret of Monkey Island is now on the App Store! The classic point-and-click adventure game was originally released in 1990 on the Atari ST, Macintosh and PC systems. The Special Edition version released on the iPhone/iPod touch is also available on PC and Xbox 360.

The Special Edition features updated graphics, music, and voice recordings. You can switch between the new and old versions simply by swiping your fingers across the screen.

The game seems to be an excellent update although there have been mixed reactions to the controls. You move the cursor around by sliding your finger on the screen and using it like a track-pad. The game does not allow you to simply tap on a part of the screen to interact with it but hopefully LucasArts will adjust that in a future update.

All in all, Monkey Island coming to the iPhone is only a sign of more good things to come. From LucasArts, hopefully other classics will be revitalized soon - like Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle.

This big App Store release clearly shows how much of a player the iPhone is becoming in the gaming world - even if not all hardcore gamers want to admit it.

Sure, the convention is much smaller this year and all, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a ton of games to be seen. Eurogamer has posted a list of the announced lineups and then some of what you’ll be seeing at E3. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have been quiet on what they’ll be showing, so it looks like we’ll need to wait until their respective showings to know for sure. The event is taking place next week, so expect it to be a busy week in news.

Nope, it’s not a port of a PS2 or Xbox title, it’s not a me-too entry, and it’s not even a Virtual Console game. CAPCOM today announced their first real, honest-to-goodness Wii exclusive, currently titled Project Treasure Island Z (working title, of course). The adventure game is geared towards puzzle solving with your Wiimote and features crisp, bright slightly cell-shaded graphics, making it look an awful lot like some of the latest Monkey Island entries.

Thanks to the point-n-click abilities of the Wiimote, I’m hoping to see a resurgence in adventure games, that genre of an era gone by. Lucasarts, do you hear me? Telltale? A little Sam and Max love would be nice too :-D. Click the jump for the full press release and the first set of screenshots.

My Gametap-less friends, the long wait is over. Sam and Max Season I: Episode I: Culture Shock is now available for the low price of $8.95. The 72MB game, which appears to be clocking in at about 3 hours of playtime, can be downloaded from TellTale’s site by itself, or as part of a “season pass” for $34.95. You can also download a free demo of the game, although one has to wonder exactly how much play you’ll get out of a demo for a 3-hour long game.

Reviews so far appear to be quitefavorable, with some of the requisite pining for the old 2D Lucasarts adventure game days of yore. Click below to check out the free demo at TelltaleGames.com!